10 Worst Supernatural Gimmicks

4. The Boogeyman

Boogeyman Jillian Hall
WWE

Marty Wright's preposterous alter ego had controversially been derided before even making it to television during his Ohio Valley Wrestling seasoning in 2005.

His monstrous demeanour was designed to strike terror into the hearts of audience members, which earned Santino Marella a slap from exasperated OVW doyen Jim Cornette after the 'Milan Miracle' laughed at the farcical gimmick while supplanted in the crowd to feign terror.

Nonetheless, the insane guise arrived on SmackDown in the autumn of 2005 following a series of teaser trailers that simply warned viewers that Boogey was "coming to get'cha", soundtracked by cliched scary music and spooky laugh.

Unclear what made him so weird, WWE's creative forces threw just about anything they could think of at the character to maintain the sense of unease he brought to matches.

Virtually impervious to pain, he performed a jittering and jolting motion when he walked and smashed a comedically oversized clock over his own head before every match.

The use of live worms became a pivotal (and stomach-churning) part of his act that ensured his stock would never rise beyond lower card comedy. Scarfing down mouthfuls of the helpless invertebrates, he'd also force them into opponents faces, mouths, and in one case, down Jillian Hall's cleavage.

Injury prone and completely lacking in credibility, The Boogeyman remarkably made it onto multiple pay-per-views before he was discarded as a full-timer from the company in 2009.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett